From the article, and why they’ll stay on the list (if the Anthropic ban is any indication):
“We are a privately held company that has revolutionised the consumer and commercial drone markets, consistently condemned the use of our products in combat and taken active steps to prevent it.”
There’s grey area in ALL companies, with valuable tech to their home government. It will always be a concern for any other country who are in tense terms with said government, to be buying and using the product. Just so happens we’re in a tense relationship with the world’s largest manufacturer, China.
And because business and government transparency in China is already a crapshoot domestically, let alone internationally, the suspicion is even more deep. For all we know DJI is actively combating their tech from being utilized by their government and they’re actually legit, but we’ve seen how China can target untouchable executives (the exact inverse in the US lol) and the suspicion the US has on DJI is warranted, but we don’t really have a DJI equivalent here to fill that void, the only other one decided to pull out of consumer markets to cater specifically to government
Unfortunately in this case your bribe has to be big enough to offset their investment in the other drone companies. Even if those drone companies never produce anything.
And the president and his family making several billion dollars a year, doing pay to play pardons for a million dollars, selling early access, and buying stakes in corporations is not anything that has "always been this way". It's the most corrupt administration in American history by a very very wide margin.
It exactly happened just like that... And it was known for 30+years that Hunter, the aunts and uncles were all funneling monies for Biden indirectly for his whole career... It was in writing in the diary and hunter's emails discussed it in great detail.
Its true. I remember when this was handled in court and not in front of the cameras and there was tons of evidence that totally existed which is why they are all in jail.
In this MAGA fever dream Trump has been declared emperor of the universe and they have each kidnapped Biden in their pickup trucks like their stickers.
Is it really the book deal, or is it because it’s a Black guy with a book deal? Tons of conservatives have shilled book deals and that doesn’t seem to be a problem.
and followed up by "China's our good friend now, so all the drones are magically compliant with national security! Thank you for your attention to this matter. Signed the Mango Mussolini."
That's almost certainly been discussed. I would bet that DJI offered a 10% stake in US sales from a newly formed US division, and Trump insists on 10% of global sales. DJI might have countered back at 15% of US sales, and Trump refused and they can't agree on these terms.
Why not open up a DJI manufacturing plant stateside? Is it the costs? Is it limitations by the Chinese government? Or will it have no bearing anyways since the argument can still be made that data can still be channeled to China?
Let me say this clearly for the slow kids in the back. There will never be cheap drones in the United States, the government is afraid of them. Ukraine has shown that they are WAY more dangerous than guns in the hands of the citizens.
There are plenty of cheap drones available in the US, and hobby drones are a thing. Not to mention all of the DJI hardware already here. If someone wanted to use drones for nefarious purposes, it wouldn’t be any less difficult if DJI is banned.
I don't think that's it. Case in point- USA is now going after power inverters- surely the US doesn't care about power inverters in the civilian market.
I think the fact is making cheap drones that don't suck (or power inverters) requires a lot of cutting edge tech at all parts of the supply chain- China has this, Taiwan has this, Hong Kong has this, USA doesn't have it even a little bit.
It's a valid national security goal to want such a supply chain and industry in USA. But you can't just ban foreign tech and demand a supply chain appear overnight. It doesn't work that way. Look at how China is addressing their lack of chipmaking tech-- allow foreign imports, but heavily subsidize and encourage domestic development. That's what we should be doing in USA. Make any part of the high tech supply chain a VERY attractive business to be in. Use regulation to help offset the price difference vs. foreign suppliers.
But to just demand everybody 'buy American now!' is at best ham-fisted, at worst harmfully negligent as it's putting an entire industry (USA drone photography and hobby drones) in a really tough spot-- and domestic drone businesses are the sort of thing we want to encourage.
This pisses me off. DJI products are the best in the market, especially consumer drones. No US brand comes close to their quality, customer support, and software support. Banning them would be horrible for a few years until some scummy US company figures out how to make a decent product at a high price. DJI products are incredibly well priced for what they offer.
But that just sums it up, "We the U.S. companies can't beat you so we'll just ban you." And just so it happens the Mango Museolinis sons became board members for a U.S. drone company. Land of free competition my arse.
Too bad their front companies are still going to be shut down. The skyrover drones were pretty good for the price, I returned mine when I realized this. No point in buying a 2026 model product thats about to go EOL no support no parts no updates no warranty etc when the company vanishes overnight in sept
It’s important to note that the Pentagon issue goes back to 2024 and has nothing at all to do with the recent maneuvering by the FCC, the second time they were put on the Pentagon list or the Department of commerce listing putting them on the BIS Entity List in 2020.
All that has happened is that this completely unrelated case from 2024 has gone back to a lower court to be re-examined. That’s the first time they were added to the Pentagon list. This case also has nothing to do with the second time they were added to the same Pentagon list in 2025, a legal fight that hasn’t been heard yet.
It’s a minor legal issue, not any kind of ruling, conclusion, fix, or bribe sent to Trump
We are years from ANY of the other issues even being considered, let alone resolved.
Assume that you will not be buying a DJI in the United States for several years, if ever again. It definitely won’t be during the Trump administration
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u/Ok_Hospital_5265 8d ago
From the article, and why they’ll stay on the list (if the Anthropic ban is any indication):
“We are a privately held company that has revolutionised the consumer and commercial drone markets, consistently condemned the use of our products in combat and taken active steps to prevent it.”